A Spirit Never Forgets
by Makesushi
Summary: I died to be born and I was born to die. Well, that's what I thought. I thought I'd forget everything, but a spirit never forgets. (Or the one where the Uchiha OC actually dies in the massacre, but no one said death was the end.)
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: I died to be born and I was born to die. Well, that's what I thought. I thought I'd forget everything, but a spirit never forgets.**

I was...confused. Yes, that's the word for it. Extremely confused. You see, I had been sure that ten minutes ago I had just been shot to death in my home, but it seemed not so much. It was like, one second, I was listening to my younger brothers screaming. Now _I_ was screaming, but I wasn't sure why. No, screaming wasn't the right word. Wailing, more like. It was cold, so cold. Is that what the after life was like? Cold. Unending, everlasting. It was much brighter, than I thought it would be. There were blobs of color that swam around me and sound in my ears that I couldn't make heads or tails of.

There was something being wrapped around my body, tightly. I panicked at first, but as the cold left my body, it was actually very comforting. I felt as if I was being wrapped in gentle arms, and pressed against my mother's chest.

As I felt myself relax into these strange fantom arms, I went over everything that I knew, from the beginning. My name is...was...Skyler Lee. I'm 17 years old. I have three younger brothers, a mom, and a dad. I was sleeping when someone broke into our house. They had rounded us all up in our living room. One of them pointed a gun at me, but my parents had nothing to give them. They shot me. I could hear screaming, but slowly their screaming became the single scream of a woman, and then my own wails. That's it, that was all I could really remember. All the little details about my life, they were there...but so foggy that I couldn't make them out. But they were there, and I knew them, but I couldn't tell what it was exactly.

Yes, in a very simple summary, I was confused.

* * *

I came to learn soon after that I was a baby. That I was, in fact, not dead anymore, and _I_ was a _baby_. My eyes and ears were beginning to develop and I could lift my hands. That was about it. I couldn't even hold my head up on my own. Being an infant was humiliating. But while I was in that state, I learned a lot. Like where I was, what my name was, or more worrying who my family was. My name was Uchiha Dachi. I had two older brothers. Itachi who was 11 years older than me and Sasuke who was four years older than me. I lived in Konoha. When I discovered this, I spent three days screaming and crying in my small infant body at how unfair that was. I had died, now I'd die again.

But I didn't want to die, so I decided that I'd do everything in my power from letting that happen. Itachi would love me, he had to. That's how it worked, right? I didn't know how I knew, but I knew that this...scenario happened...frequently. My mother breathed a sigh of relief when I'd come to that conclusion, because I'd stopped my continuous crying. She'd told my father she was going to take me to the doctor if I didn't stop. When I finally did she hugged me close, and asked me over and over again why I had been crying, but expressed joy that it wasn't happening anymore.

* * *

"He's really squishy." Sasuke said one day, leaning over my crib when I was about five months old. The four year old looked at Itachi who was smiling down on me. "Why is he squishy, Itachi?" Sasuke asked, turning his big eyes on Itachi.

"That's because he's a baby, Sasuke." Itachi said with a laugh. He picked me up, and I laughed happily. He poked my nose. "Come on Sasuke, mother wants us to go to town with her." Itachi held his hand out and he led us to the kitchen, where our mother was waiting.

While we were in town, I was working on something. I'd been able to make sounds for about a month now, and I was working on my first word. A manipulative word, but I thought it might save me. Itachi held me close as we walked, and smiled indulgently as I babbled away in a nonsense language he couldn't understand. I grabbed his hair and smiled up at him. "'tachi?" I said. He stopped and looked at me with wide eyes, shocked.

"What...did you just say my name?" He asked in wonder. He smiled brightly and ran over to our mother. She was equally as excited as Itachi that I had said my first words.

* * *

I was three when it happened. I thought I had saved myself. Like I was smarter than all the rest. I'd outwitted my brother and convinced him to love me enough not to kill me. I was wrong. It was night, not very late in the night, about nine. I was waiting for Sasuke to come home. It was the end of his first week at the academy, and I was so excited to see him for the weekend. He promised he'd take me out to get something sweet in the morning.

The door slid open and I looked up, embarrassed. I was supposed to be asleep. Itachi was standing there in his new uniform and I smiled at him bashfully. I was holding two of my favorite toys in my hands. "S-sorry, nii-san!" I said standing up. I put my toys away and laid down in my bed. Itachi was still standing there. "Nii-san?" I asked.

He walked closer and sat on my bed, grabbing one of the pillows I had at the foot of my bed. "You know I love you, right, Dachi?" He asked, brushing my black hair out of my eyes.

"Yeah, love you too." I said, closing my eyes. "See you tomorrow."

"Yes, we _will_ see each other again." He said. He stood up and I waited for him to close the door so I could go back to playing, but he didn't. I opened my eyes to see what he was doing, but he was just holding the pillow in his hands. "I love you, ototo. I'm sorry." He rushed me and I didn't have time to scream when he covered my face. He put his hand over my mouth and nose, and I couldn't breath.

I reached out desperately, clawing at his arm. I dug my nails into his flesh. I _couldn't breath._ It hurt, my lungs were burning. I could hear my heart hammering in my ears. As time went on, I heard it starting to slow as my struggling became weaker and weaker. I felt my heart slow to a stop, and my hands fell away from his arm. Then I was standing on the other side of the room.

I gasped, but I still couldn't breath. I had no idea what was happening. I was so scared. I was crying and my mouth was open in a silent scream. I doubled over on the ground clutching at my throat.

"Knock it off, you're aggravating me." A voice behind me said. I felt a cold hand on my back, and suddenly I could breath. I looked around me and came face to face with a pale man. He had red eyes, long white hair, and a black upside down triangle tattooed onto his head. I looked up at him with wide, horrified.

"Wow, three years." He tutted and rolled his red eyes. "That's way less than last time. Almost a shame."

"W-what's happening?" I asked, tears running down my face.

"Your brother just killed you." He turned back to Itachi who was still pressing the pillow over my face. He stepped away from me, and I screamed again when I saw myself laying on the bed, lifeless. My eyes were leaking the last tears and my face was twisted into a permanent look of terror. Itachi was breathing heavily, and backing away from me. He pulled out his sword and his face melted into an expressionless mask. He left the room, slamming the door as he left. "Tough luck, kid." The man said, stepping close to my body. He grabbed one of my limp arms and raised it, before dropping it.

"Who are you?" I asked, struggling to my legs. I was so cold.

"Death." He told me. He kneeled down in front of me, he put his hand on my head. "Look kiddo, I know how this goes, and I want to stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Sometimes, spirits are angry, when they die. They can't accept what's happened to them." He said. "They become ghosts. You don't want to be a ghost, kid."

I looked at my body. "He can't get away with this." I said, feeling a strange sense of anger consume me.

The man sighed. "Whatever. I tried, I guess." He shrugged. "Don't hurt the innocent, kid." He warned me. "I may love a little murder from my living servants, but there are some serious punishments for hurting someone who doesn't deserve it."

"Like what?" I asked with a sneer. "What else can happen, I'm dead."

He leaned closer. "Let me tell you kid, there are some things _a lot_ worse than death." He warned. "Good luck, I suppose." He shrugged.

"You didn't really try and stop me." I said, watching as he made his way to my door.

"You're too far gone already." He told me. "Nothing I say can stop you. So I invite you to watch. Interfere as much as you can. I don't care. But just remember what I told you…"

"Some things are worse than death." I finished for him. He nodded, then I was alone. With my body.

* * *

I spent an entire year, in my room, just looking at the place where my body once laid. Yes, and entire year, rooted to the spot. Someone had come the morning after to take it away, but I didn't move. Sasuke came into my room, several times. He cried, but I didn't move. Moving...was hard. Really hard. But 365 days later, I turned and opened my door. Sasuke was in the hallway, right when it happened and he jumped a foot in the air. I thought...for a moment he could see me...but there was fear in his eyes. If Sasuke saw me he wouldn't be afraid.

He went to investigate the room, but came up empty. He looked around the whole house, still finding nothing. He packed his bags and left that night. But I followed. He looked afraid, like he could sense I was there. But he didn't know it was me. For weeks, I'd look down at him at night and he'd be looking around, wild with fear, until he fell asleep. One night, I decided it was time for me to find Itachi. I sat beside Sasuke and his eyes snapped open and he sat up, a cry of terror on his lips. I reached out and touched his cheek with my small hand, and he shivered. "I love you." I whispered. I knew he hear me, but looked like he couldn't believe it.

Then I pulled away. As I left, I slid his bedroom door shut. I peeked through the crack before closing it, seeing him look at it with wild eyes. When I turned around however, I didn't know where I was.

It was a forest, bright and clean. I saw two figures walking beyond the trees. Their coats were black with red clouds scattered on the fabric. I watched them and I felt myself burn in rage when I saw that one of them was my brother. I followed. He seemed stiff when they stopped for a rest. I was looking at him from behind the trunk of a tree.

"Come out from behind there." He said. The blue guy looked at him in surprise. "You, I can see you, come out."

"Itachi...no one's there." The man said.

"I can see him." Itachi stood up, so I slid further behind the tree into the shadows. He followed, but he wouldn't see me. He looked around but he couldn't see me, even though I was standing right next to him. I reached out and grabbed his wrist. He snatched it away and held it close to his chest. He looked right where I was. He waved his hand slowly in the air. It passed through my body.

"Maybe you saw a ghost, Itachi." The other man grinned at Itachi, not knowing how right he was.

"Let's go, Kisame." Itachi said turning to leave. "We have work to do."

"Yeah. You're right."

Little did Itachi know that I'd marked him. I poured enough of my energy into him that I could follow him, wherever he went. I smiled at his retreating back. I wasn't going to let him get away with killing me. I was going to make him suffer. "Nii-san." I said, my voice being carried by the wind. I saw him stiffen up again, but he didn't turn around.

 **Okay, so if you've made it this far, let me give you a little backstory on my character. I made him when I was 11 and just starting to get into Naruto, like almost ten years ago. Since then I've developed a lot as a writer, but little me had some good ideas. So I revamped this character and decided to write them into a real story. God, you should have seen the original OC, it was SO BAD! But I want this to be a serious story, so strap in. Get ready for angst AND comedy.**

 **Also this story is totally self-serving and I don't actually care if anyone likes it or not, because I'm writing it anyways. However if you did like it, leave a comment please. Love those. Also I'll be posting another Uchiha OC story, totally different from this, eventually. Because I can. No one can stop me. I already finished the first chapter finished.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Eyyy, read** **review** **and enjoy**

* * *

I was watching him sleep. Itachi, I mean. He slept way more peacefully than a murderer should have. I was pacing around the room. I didn't have any energy, not enough to hurt him, like I wanted.

"I think you need to stop obsessing over this." A familiar voice said. I looked behind me, and Death stood there. He leveled me with a judgmental look. "It's not good for your health, kid."

"Who cares about my health?" I spat at him. "I'm dead."

"Yeah, you're dead." He nodded. He leaned against the wall and chewed his bottom lip. "You're not a very good haunt, you know?"

"It's hard to move." I said with a tiered sigh. "I can't touch things, or make him hear me. Not without using almost all the energy that I have."

"Yes, I'm aware of how being a disembodied spirit works, thank you." He rolled his eyes at me. He hummed and sat down in a chair. "You need to return to the place you died, every now and then. The last place you were alive. You just need to recharge, then you can keep on haunting."

I didn't want to go back there. It was empty now, and I couldn't leave past the hallway. But if that's what I'd have to do,

"You know why he did it though. You've known it was coming since you were born."

"It wasn't supposed to be like this." I told him. "He was supposed to love me. Enough not to kill me."

"That doesn't really seem fair. He did it to save the village."

"HOW DID MY DEATH SAVE _ANYONE!"_ I screamed at him, clenching my fists at my side. I jumped when the cups on the dresser fell over. Both Itachi and the other man snapped to attention.

"Don't you take that tone with me, little boy." Death said, rising out of his chair, standing over me. " _Oh, I'm dead! Poor me!_ You're not _special."_ He snarled at me. He grabbed me by the front of my pajama shirt. "A _lot_ of little kids die, yet hardly any of them act like this. They move on, they go onto the next life. They want to be with their families. Why are you acting like this?!"

I looked down, I let him shake me around. I knew that I was older, but this time I was three. I had the mind of a three year old but the experience of someone in their twenties. It was a complicated mix. So I did what any three year old, who was technically twenty, did. I cried. I cried and cried and cried until Death let go of me. Even after, when I was sitting on the ground, bawling my eyes out. I used a small fist to wipe away my tears.

"H-hey, wait a second!" He held his arms up. "It's really not fair to just keep crying like this." He sighed when I just kept on crying. "I was just kidding, you know. Lots of dead people become ghosts!" When I didn't stop crying he looked around the room in a blind panic. "Look, look, let me show you something." He grabbed my arm and pointed it to a window. "Y-you want to scare him right, just focus on the window. Okay?" He asked. I sniffled and nodded. I scrunched up my tear filled eyes and watched as the window slowly closed. Nothing to extravagant. "Okay, okay, good just let the wind carry your message."

I looked at the two men who were looking at the window with equal looks of surprise. My brother didn't look so peaceful anymore. If you knew what parts of his face to look at, you could see he was frightened. I balled my hands into fists. "Traitor." I hissed. It came out low and gravelly, sounding unlike me, yet still like me. I saw his eyes widen a fraction, and his traveling companion stiffened next to him. I felt myself fall back onto Death, and he held me upright. I was so exhausted, but the look on Itachi's face as he and the man left the room was worth it.

"See, look at that." Death said, patting my shoulder. "You totally freaked them out, aren't you proud."

"Yeah." I rubbed my eyes and sniffled. I watched as Itachi and his friend quickly gathered their things and left the hotel. "I want to follow him, but…"

"You should return home, for a few days." Death suggested. "You're weak right now, and you don't want to be stuck here. Who knows how long it'll take to leave."

I nodded. "Take me there?" I asked.

He took me by the small hand and led me to the door. He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked it. He opened it and stepped through, pulling me with him. He put the key around my neck. "So long as you have that, you can travel back to your room." He said, patting me on the head. "Now, rest, then just find Itachi."

I nodded and looked around the room. There was nothing there. Sasuke must have had it removed. I sighed and sat in the middle of the ground. He wrapped my arms around my shoulders and shivered. "Why is the afterlife so cold?" I asked.

"It's not." He told me. "You're cold because you aren't supposed to be here. When you die, your spirit is laid bare so you might be reincarnated. The human world is made to hide the spirit."

I hummed. "Is there any way to get warm?" I asked.

"Pass on." He said frankley. He had propped himself up against the wall and smiled at me, a sad lift to his mouth. "Kid, you need to be careful, if you stay in this world for too long, you'll become a mononoke. And let me tell you, things don't tend to end well for vengeful spirits that were once human."

"I'm cold." I said. I lowered my head and closed my eyes. I heard him sigh, then leave me alone in the room. I knew that I had to stay there for a few days, but I wanted to find Itachi. When I was close to him, the air wasn't so _ice cold._

It was the fourth day when I was disturbed. I heard the door slide open and I turned my head. There was a man with a lion mask on. He was looking around the room, walking around it and observing everything, running his fingers over the wood panels of the wall, like he was looking for something.

"It's rude not to knock, when entering someone's room." I said, irritated that my rest was being disturbed. He stopped and looked around again. He took off his mask and his face showed confusion. I rolled my eyes. I saw him stiffen up. "Get out." I told him, when it became apparent that he could see me, or at least see the wisps of energy that formed the outline of what might have been my body.

He took a kunai and threw it at me, but it passed through me and embed itself into the floor. "I said, leave." I told him, and watched in satisfaction when he ran out of the room. I turned and looked at myself in the window and saw that I really did look transparent. My eyes were two completely white balls in my face, my skin was white like snow, and my hair hung around my face like a deep black ink. It was strange, I was sure that when I went to follow Itachi, I had looked normal.

Maybe it was the exhaustion. Maybe my lack of energy made it harder to retain my appearance. "It's so cold." I said, turning away from the window. "So, so, cold."

* * *

I knew that it was safe to leave ten days later, because I was suddenly able to walk around my old home. Before I was restricted to only my room. It was when I was exploring when I found that there was only one thing left in the house. A picture, the only family picture we had where I was in it. I was too young to be in any others. Itachi, Sasuke, and I stood together, Itachi with one hand on one of our shoulders. I felt heartbroken, seeing the picture laying covered in dust, and the glass broken. Like someone had thrown it on the ground and left it. I felt it must have been Sasuke.

It wasn't the first time I'd cried, but that time, my energy caused the pipes in the kitchen to burst. I jumped while the water shot out and hit against the roof. He wiped my eyes and tried to ignore it. I grabbed the picture and took it back to my room. I put it on the floor. I saw that the kunai was still logged into the wood of my floors, so I pulled it out and examined it. I raised my arm above me and stabbed the knife into the picture, into Itachi's face. The knife was buried all the way up to the hilt. "My brothers are assholes." I mumbled, then looked around like I expected to see my mother coming around the corner to scold me. But she wouldn't, because I was alone in that world, stuck between the land of the living and the dead.

I stood and closed my eyes. If I focused, I could see Itachi, he was walking again. He and that blue man. They were walking down a path, surrounded by trees. When I opened my eyes again I was standing on the road as well. I looked at a puddle and saw that my eyes were that same milky white color as they had been when that ninja had barged into my room. I wrapped my arms around my body and bent my head down to hide my face.

I could hear their footsteps come closer before slowing to a stop. "Hey kid, get out of the middle of the road." Itachi's friend said. I didn't move, I said nothing. "Are you...lost?"

"It's so cold." I said, feeling the shiver consume my body.

"Actually it's not kid, it's like a hundred out here." The man said with a slight chuckle.

"It's so cold and I can't get warm." I slowly raised my head, letting it tilt slightly. My hair covered my left eye.

The companion let out a cry of surprise . I heard Itachi gasp and he fell over. The friend turned and I teleported behind them. When the blue man turned back around he swung his sword down and crushed the ground, but he didn't see me.

"Why is it so cold, nii-san?" I asked.

The man grabbed Itachi and the two of them ran faster than I'd ever seen two humans run. I closed my eyes and I watched them. Itachi was white as a sheet. The companion, was also very pale. "What the hell was _that?"_ The man asked, with a crack in his voice.

"He looked...like my younger brother." Itachi said, seeming to gain his composure. "But that's impossible. He's dead, they're all dead."

" _Shit."_ The blue man said, looking over his shoulder. "Itachi, you're totally being haunted."

"Ghosts aren't real, Kisame." Itachi said. "Besides, my brother wasn't a vengeful person. He would have passed on."

"Nope, nope." Kisame shook his head. "I'm not touching this with a ten foot pole." He stopped and looked around. "Spirit of Itachi's dead little brother, I haven't done anything to you, leave me alone!"

Itachi rolled his eyes and continued walking. "It might have been a genjutsu, Kisame."

"Yeah, but you have sharingan, and you also fell over. I don't think that was just some illusion."

"I can't believe it." Itachi said coldly. "It's just not a possibility."

I stayed invisible as I followed them, but I saw that their shoulders were stiff and they walked like they knew I was following them. I smiled as I skipped along behind them. Good, Itachi deserved a little bit of uncomfortableness.

I wondered how he felt about me sometimes. I was young, a fresh new human, a stranger. Did he ever love me? I thought me might have at one point, but looking down at my ghostly hands, it seemed he'd proven me wrong. I knew... _why_ he'd done it. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I'd known all along that he had no choice, I wasn't the only very young child murdered that night, but it wasn't supposed to be like that. He should have let me live. He should have, but he didn't, and his last words to me were 'I love you, I'm sorry.'

But not enough. Not as much as Sasuke, who he'd known longer. Who he felt would be more useful to the village in the future. Who he thought actually deserved a future. "Bastard." I growled, clenching my hands into fists. He couldn't hear me, but damn it, I was going to make sure he _never_ forgot me.


End file.
